One in 10 parents “likely' to use food banks to feed their children in coming months

A third of families are skipping meals because of rising costs, finds survey

- TOM BATCHELOR

The soaring cost of living could push more than a million parents to use a food bank in the next three months, a survey suggests.

Nearly one in 10 parents said they were “very likely” to need help with food and around nine in 10 said they were now paying more for their weekly shop, with inflation hitting 7 per cent in March a 30-year high. A third of families are having to skip meals because of rising costs, while one in five has resorted to eating cold food to keep energy bills down, the polling said.

The findings, from a survey of 3,200 UK parents with dependent children carried out by Stack Data Strategy between 18 and 31 March, were revealed in a survey for Deliveroo and food bank charity Trussell Trust. The research showed that more than half of parents had cut back on heating as a result of a rise in their household bills.